AIR SUPREMACY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13103, 17 June 1913, Page 2

AIR SUPREMACY.

A feature of the May magazines is the .attempt that is marie to stir up public opinion m Groat Britain to the necessity for mui'vi vigorous action m providing tho nation with adequate protection* by moans of aerial craft. The British pre;-3 have joined m the crusade and lia-vo created a feeling of uneasiness something like that which was produced wh.cn the play '"The Englishman's | Home," depicting a foreign invasion^. took Britain by storm. The publicist who uses the pen-name of "Excubitor" ("The Awakencr") deals m the Fortnightly with Germany's naval ,and aerial policy, his arguments being directed to show that, feeling hopeless of being able to overtake Britain m naval construction, the German Government lias determined to employ the cheaper and terribly deadly engines of aerial power, m co-operation- with her naval units. The writer draws a harrowing, picture of the danjage which Germany even now could .do with her airships, and urges that Britain caimot be content with ,the purely defensive measures outlined by Colonel Seely, but must adopt :a "vigorous offensive," as the best defence aerially, as well -as'navaHy/ and to that end must construct long range airships, capable di carrying war to. the enemies' frontiers. It was m . 1897 ' that Count Zeppelin began his experiments m Germany ,- so that Britain has 16 years of leeway to make up.: . "Excubrjior" declares^ that to make it up is' the' only policy, compatible with Britain's safety. r>lr Harold VVyatt, writing, on the same subject m the. Nineteeth Century, pictures the that Germany's aerial power has made m the outlook of the average Briton, whose old immunity from personal peril, he says, is for ever gone. "There will not be m all England," he writes, .."and perhaps m all Scotland and Wales, one dweller m a town of any siae upon whose roof the levin bolt of death may not descejid while tie sleeps. Each night as lie goes to his rest he will realise that he may be blown into eternity by a bomb from the dark heights of the air before the break of another dawn. . And he will know, too, that to this appalling menace Of imminent destruction are exposed equally with himself, and m eqVial helplessness "his womenfolk and his little children." Mr Wyatt paints the shadow as black as possible, m order to emphasise the urgent need of the British 1 Government to put m hand the construction at once of airships-cap-able of meeting the German dirigibles on equal terms. He forecasts aerial battles between the ifnited States /and Japan. And he adds: — "Not 'less 1 Will the fate of Australia and, of New Zealand be settled m aerial conflict, and probahly before another 30 years ( have passed." Whilst the genius of Germany is engaged m the building giant dirigibles, as the navigable balltfons are called, British invention is turned to the fascinating task of perfecting the flying machine. , The British . naval thorities are devoting a great deal. of, attention to the type of machine which is neither aero nor hydro,; but simply a water plane. The development of this new machine has been carried on with the usual "do-much-say-little" custom of the service and it is believed a very efficient and highly interesting craft has been evolved that has very great pos-< sibilities both for offensive and defensive work. It can fly fast or slow, high or low, and come to rest on the surface of the sea very like a huge- bird. It can trace the course of a submarine. 1 and destroy* it. It can fly at timtes the pace of a torpedo-boat destroyer, is armed with a quick-firing gun, and goes out m all weathers. It can be picked up by a warship or launched merely, by dropping it on to the sea. The) lines on which it is being developed are not known, but it . is believed that very large machines capable of extremely long flights are being built. The .possibilities of such a machine are obvious and its work will be keenly watched. A fliglit m mid-air between opposing fleets of gas . balloons ', and aeroplanes is surely ; a prospect undreamt of by. our forefathers.., But the advances of the past fifty years have been so revolutionary that the .most conservative of men is Teady to.a4mit at,, this : st^e of progress: that all things 'are possible. Apart from the sanguinary significance of the present problem of , national defence, there is 'a. great, prospect opened for development. in. transportation . m the near future.. .From, the stage coach to the machine is but/ a short span of time,, but how wonderful the change f Experts'; like the.. Cojnte de Lambert assei^t, that' Avithin ten years wnterplanes will make the trip from New York -to Liverpool between daylight and. dark.